What Maveron does

Maveron is a privately-held, consumer-only venture capital firm founded in 1998 by Dan Levitan and Howard Schultz (former Starbucks CEO) in Seattle, with additional offices in San Francisco and New York. The firm invests at seed and Series A in early-stage consumer-brand startups across 10 verticals, including commerce, healthcare, FinTech, food, media, PropTech, education, energy, HR, and social, with a stated thesis of identifying where consumer behavior is changing before it is obvious and backing 'non-normal entrepreneurs' building brands that integrate into how people live, work, learn, play, eat, and stay well.

The firm manages successive venture funds (first institutional fund in 2004; $225M Fund 8 raised in 2021) and reports 40+ active portfolio companies and 40+ exits/IPO since inception, including eBay (first investment 1998), Zulily (IPO 2013), Trupanion (IPO), Allbirds (IPO 2020), Pacaso (unicorn in 5 months from Series A in 2020), Modern Fertility, Rec Room, Two Chairs, Thirty Madison, Lovevery, and Madison Reed. Revenue is generated through standard VC fund management economics (management fees on committed capital and carried interest on realizations); specific fee and carry terms are not publicly disclosed. The firm is B Corp certified (June 2021), and its LP base includes children's hospitals, foundations, universities, and philanthropic families. The team of ~14 spans investment, operations, and administrative staff, led by Co-Founder and General Partner Dan Levitan and CIO/General Partner Jason Stoffer.

Name

Maveron

Legal name

Maveron

Website

https://maveron.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Maveron is a privately-held, consumer-only venture capital firm founded in 1998 that invests at seed and Series A in early-stage consumer-brand startups across commerce, healthcare, FinTech, food, and other verticals, serving mission-driven founders and philanthropic LPs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Consumer Venture Capital

akta.pro primary industry

Early-Stage Venture Capital (Pre-Seed/Seed) (FSANAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sustainable Private Markets (Impact PE/VC, Private Credit, Infrastructure) (FSAAALAG)

Keywords

• Venture capital investing
• Consumer brand investing
• Early-stage venture capital
• Consumer venture funding
• Growth capital investing

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Venture capital fund management: Inferred standard VC revenue model based on public references to fundraises (Maveron's first institutional fund in 2004; $225M Fund 8 raised in 2021). Revenue is generated through management fees on committed capital and carried interest on fund realizations. Specific fee and carry terms are not publicly disclosed.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Maveron is a consumer-only venture capital firm that raises institutional funds and deploys early-stage equity capital into non-normal consumer-brand founders. The firm partners with entrepreneurs building brands across commerce, healthcare, fintech, food, media, proptech, education, energy, HR, and social, and provides board-level support, consumer-behavior expertise, and cross-portfolio network effects from seed through exit.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Maveron Fund 8 ($225M) Maveron's $225 million institutional venture fund (Fund 8) raised in 2021, dedicated to early-stage investing in next-generation consumer brands across commerce, healthcare, education, food, fintech, proptech, energy, HR, social, and media verticals. Limited partners include children's hospitals, foundations, universities, and philanthropic families.
• Maveron Insights Long-form consumer insights and portfolio news publication distributed via Substack (maveronvc.substack.com), Medium (maveron.medium.com), and the Maveron website Insights section, authored by partners and covering consumer trends, AI's impact on CPG, GLP-1s, and portfolio announcements.

Quantifiable outcome

• Pacaso — became a unicorn in 5 months from launch (2020), one of the fastest US companies to do so; has since raised over $200M in equity funding.
• +9 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered flagship.

• Howard SchultzflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1998Co-founder of Maveron with Dan Levitan in 1998, after the Starbucks IPO. Provides consumer-credibility foundation, network access, and brand legitimacy. Per company site: 'In 1998, after taking Starbucks public, Dan Levitan and Howard founded Maveron.'
• Seattle Children's Healthcare SystemflagshipOthersCo-founder Dan Levitan serves as a member of the Boards of Trustees of Seattle Children's Healthcare System and Seattle Children's Hospital, and on the Investment Advisory Committee overseeing $2.5B+ in AUM. Reflects Maveron's philanthropic-LP base (children's hospitals, foundations, universities, philanthropic families).

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Forerunner Ventures: Forerunner is a consumer-only early-stage VC firm founded by Kirsten Green, with a similar thesis-led approach to backing transformative consumer brands. It is the most direct peer to Maveron in terms of vertical focus, stage, and partnership-style investing.
• Lerer Hippeau: Lerer Hippeau is an early-stage consumer and media VC firm and an active co-investor with Maveron (e.g., WeatherPromise's $12.8M Series A). Highly comparable in stage, sector focus, and New York-headquartered orientation.
• Susa Ventures: Susa is an early-stage consumer-focused VC; Maveron Partner Natalie Dillon previously worked in Susa's investment team. Direct peer in vertical specialization with overlapping portfolio themes in consumer SaaS and marketplaces.
• First Round Capital: First Round is a seed-led, thesis-driven VC with deep consumer exposure (Warby Parker, Allbirds-era founders). Comparable in stage focus, founder community orientation, and capital-efficient fund size.
• BrandProject: BrandProject is a consumer-only seed-stage VC with a similar thesis on mission-driven consumer brand building. Direct peer at the seed stage with comparable fund size and consumer-only mandate.
• BoxGroup: BoxGroup is a seed-stage consumer/community-oriented VC with thesis overlap on consumer brands and community-led companies. Comparable in fund size, stage focus, and founder-first orientation.

Broad incumbents

• Index Ventures: Index is a multi-stage, multi-sector incumbent with a strong consumer practice (eBay, Glossier, Allbirds competitor set). Not vertical-specialist but competes for the same consumer-tech founders and represents the broader benchmark for consumer VC scale.
• General Catalyst: General Catalyst is a multi-stage incumbent with a meaningful consumer practice (Warby Parker, Allbirds, etc.). It is not a vertical specialist but competes for consumer founders and offers significantly larger follow-on capital — a key competitive reference point.

Emerging players

• Collaborative Fund: Collaborative Fund is an early-stage consumer-and-sustainability VC that overlaps with Maveron's B Corp thesis and consumer health/regenerative focus. A partial-overlap peer with a stronger ESG lens.
• Female Founders Fund: An early-stage consumer-tech fund with thesis overlap on consumer health, commerce, and family-tech (a category where Maveron has Lovevery). Less generalist than Maveron but competes for similar founders.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/maveron
• Facebookfacebook.com/155165766148
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/maveron-llc

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments337 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Maveron